AMERICAN SOCIOLOGIST AND SOCIAL REFORMER
W.E.B. Du Bois, in full William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, (born February 23, 1868, Great Barrington, Massachusetts, U.S.—died August 27, 1963, Accra, Ghana), American sociologist, historian, author, editor, and activist who was the most important black protest leader in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. He shared in the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909 and edited The Crisis, its magazine, from 1910 to 1934. His collection of essays The Souls of Black Folk(1903) is a landmark of African American literature.